While that works at times, it does not take into account situations where users may not be able to run the program. This can be the case if the existing installation of Windows is corrupt and cannot be repaired anymore, if you run Linux or another operating system, or if you bought a computer without an operating system.

Update: The Techbench website is offline currently. It is unclear if this is a temporary issue or if Microsoft made the decision to pull it from the Internet. We suggest you use the excellent Windows ISO Downloader tool instead which works fine and supports downloads for all major Windows versions and editions.

Downloads for Windows 10, which are valid for Home and Pro versions of the operating system are offered, and it takes a couple of clicks to start the download of the ISO image on the site.

Note: Windows 10 Enterprise is not offered on the page.

Select the edition that you are interested in, e.g. Windows 10 should be the one for most users, and click on confirm afterwards. The server validates the request, and displays a product language menu afterwards.

Select the language you want supported and hit confirm once again. The request is validated again by the server.

Download links for the ISO images are displayed, and you may select 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the selected version of Windows for download (or both).

Links are valid for a 24-hour period only after which they expire and need to be requested again.

Download Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 ISO images

The page offers no indication that ISO image downloads for previous versions of Windows, Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, can be requested there as well.

If you analyze the page source code however, you will notice that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are mentioned there several times.

That got some people thinking, and the result is code that you can run on the site to add download options for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 ISO images to the page.

The code has been posted on Pastebin. Here is what you need to do:

Open the Microsoft Tech Bench website in a browser of choice that supports Developer Tools, and here the console (e.g. Firefox or Chrome).

If you are using Google Chrome, use Ctrl-Shift-J, if you are using Firefox, use Ctrl-Shift-K to open the console.

Paste all of it to the console and hit enter. To do that, click inside the console area and use Ctrl-V to paste it. Alternatively, right-click with the mouse in the area and select paste from the menu.

Once you have done that, click on the (now blue) "select edition menu. There you find listed dozens of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 ISO images that you can download in the same way that you can download Windows 10

The process is identical: select the desired version and hit confirm. Wait for server validation, select the desired language and hit confirm. The server validates the request again, and you get ISO download links for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the selected Windows version.

You find all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 versions on the page with the exception of Enterprise. This includes the following versions:

Windows 7 Home Basic

Windows 7 Home Premium

Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 Professional

In addition, you find lots of K, N, KN and Education versions listed on the page after the operation. These versions are designed for specific markets and have components removed:

Windows N for the European market. Multimedia support is removed from the edition.

Windows K for the Korean market. It ships with links to third-party media player software and instant messaging applications.

The improved menu disappears when the page is reloaded, but you can repeat the operation again to display the additional download options again. (via Tech Journey).

Note: Microsoft may plug this at any time but has not done so in the past two months since the code has been first posted.

Summary

Article Name

Download Windows 7 and 8.1 ISO Images from Microsoft

Description

Find out how to download ISO images of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 from official Microsoft servers.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

Publisher

Ghacks Technology News

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

Using this method (many thanks, Martin!) I downloaded Windows 8.1 English 32-bit, ran sha1sum against it, and got: c7fa828e01e98b601e0aca8019f1cb223eb23223 Then I looked at the MSDN Win8.1 downloads (you can look, but not download, without an MSDN subscription, but you do need a free Microsoft account, such as Hotmail):https://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/securedownloads/?#searchTerm=&ProductFamilyId=545&Languages=en&PageSize=50&PageIndex=0&FileId=0 The entry titled “Windows 8.1 with Update (multiple editions) (x86) – DVD (English)” matches the SHA1 above, so it must be the same as my download. This Win8.1 iso was released 2014.12.15, and includes the November 2014 Update Rollup. Hopefully the same applies to the iso’s for other versions of Win8.1 extracted from Tech Bench.

That’s a very good question. Nothing worse than doing a clean install from an old Windows 7 SP1 iso and having to download and install what seems like hundreds of updates. I’ve always kept a system image of the Windows 7 after all the updates have been installed.

Replying to myself here, like a true mofo: I downloaded 7 Ultimate SP1 and extracted it. It’s in fact from 2011, so updating these babies will take maaaaany hours. The positive side: Uncheck and hide all of the countless Windows 10 related “updates” and enjoy a nice clean OS.

Thanks! It works after added it in GreaseMonkey! But do this download contains cumulative updates too (and if ‘yes’ which is the last date of the updates)? I’ve already had an SP1 ISO of Win7 x64 for a clean installation in this week, but I’ve have a list of ‘not apreciate’ updates too referred to Win10 upgrading to manual keep out. Thanks Martin, always useful topics.

I believe that Tech Bench is the page linked from the Insider home page, and the latest Win10 ISO did Not have any updates since the original was posted last year. Am I right? In case of disaster I would like to have a ISO available with *current* updates, service packs, etc. applied.

If you visit the Microsoft download pages for 8.1 and 10 ISOs with a non-Windows browser user agent, you can just download the ISO files directly from Microsoft rather than have to download and build locally with the Media Creation Tool. I much prefer this method as it allows you to hash check the ISOs as intact/legit. It works with simple user agent browser extensions on Windows. I’m not sure if it would work with Windows 7 ISOs too.

I prefer the windows windows 7 onwards are crap and worse every time Windows 10 want to know more about you. He distrusted Windows 10, I mean by the news that there was in the vicinity of the security / privacy.

Browse Box “Products A-Z” , Select “W”. Select the OS you want. After landing on the the new page, either scroll to the ISO you need, or use the check boxes to the left to narrow your search. You may to check “All” instead of “32 or 64 bit”. On the listing of the ISO you downloaded, select “Details”.

Examples below:

This media refresh includes the installation hotfix described in KB Article 2534111. No other changes have been made to the product. File Name: en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939.iso Languages: English SHA1: 0BCFC54019EA175B1EE51F6D2B207A3D14DD2B58

This media refresh includes the installation hotfix described in KB Article 2534111. No other changes have been made to the product. File Name: en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_677332.iso Languages: English SHA1: 36AE90DEFBAD9D9539E649B193AE573B77A71C83

Hi!!! you are great!!! nice code and was so easy did it!!!!!!!! Thanks a lot. I have some questions: Whats is Windows version K or KN or N? I’m looking for a Windows 7 sp1 updated to march 2016… Is it possible?

The error message given is Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property ‘innerHTML’ of null(…) and the dialog box no longer lists the other versions besides Windows 10. (For those reading who may not know, previously the error message given could be ignored and the other versions would appear)

Thank you for the response. It gave me the motivation I needed to keep trying this over and over lol. For me this does not work in Chrome for some reason. (Latest build on Win 7) I tried it at least 15 times, literally. I then tried it in Firefox about 3 or 4 times, to no avail. I verified the code from Pastebin each time I tried it.

After reading your post, I buckled down and tried in about 2 or 3 more times in Firefox and it worked. I have no idea why it didn’t work the first few times, but finally it did. I did the same thing every time, but for whatever reason it worked the final time lol. The steps are pretty simple so I’m not sure what happened, but either way I’m glad it still works.

When I try to go on windows10iso page it redirects me to the download tool. Can anyone please help me to download it? Even if someone uploads the Windows 7 Ultimate on some torrent I will be more than glad!

The good is that I already made a bootable usb… The bad is that I don’t have the iso after the format…

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.